My students live in a rural community with a population of approximately 1,005 in southwest Missouri. The nearest public libraries are more than 10 miles away and are not available to most of my students' families without them paying an annual usage fee.
As the K-12 school librarian, in charge of both K-6th grade and 7-12th-grade libraries, I am blessed to impact the lives of my students throughout their entire public education career.
I instruct K-6th students weekly for 55 minutes as part of my school's specials rotation. Elementary students experience a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) MakerSpace learning environment at least once a quarter during their time with me.
My 7th through 12th grade students may visit the school library on an open schedule. If I am unavailable to help them due to my teaching responsibilities in the elementary library, my full-time non-certified aide is available.
I collaborate with teachers to make my instruction relevant to the real world and to integrate research. I strive to make my library collections not only curriculum-centered, but also reader-centered. Above all, I want to instill the love of life-long reading into all of my patrons (students and staff).
My Project
My district has made an effort to integrate STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) concepts throughout the curriculum. While the focus on problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration is essential to best prepare our students for post-graduate jobs in the 21st century, the cost of these STEAM resources often exceeds our school budget.
A recent conversation with a few of my teachers led me to seek a way for our students to visually make a representation of numbers.
Sumblox stack like building blocks. Each number’s height is specifically meant to help students comprehend number sense. For instance, the number 5 is exactly 1/2 the size of the number 10, while the number 1 is 1/10 the size of the number 10.
The educational set of SumBlox that I am requesting includes 100 blocks that my students will be able to use freely during our STEAM MakerSpace days in library. The activity cards will help guide my students to complete various challenges with the blocks (ie. tallest stack).
This set also includes four teaching manuals (Addition, Multiplication, Fractions, Adding Fractions) that provide lesson ideas for my teachers to use to reinforce math skills being taught in the classroom.
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